Arts & Entertainment

Renewal, rejuvenation, gardening, hiking and baseball. Sure sounds like spring, doesn’t it? Here are book suggestions that suit the season, provided by Carol Tuttle, collection services librarian for the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library.

“Spring Fever” by Mary Kay Andrews

Love, deception and second chances are wrapped in this plot-twisting novel set in the Deep South. Advertising executive Annajane Hudgens finds that leaving her rural North Carolina hometown and traveling to Atlanta for a new job and a promising life is complicated. This is an enjoyable escape for spring.

“Room with a View” by E.M. Forster

In this classic book (that became a movie) sheltered Englishwoman Lucy Honeychurch and her older cousin, Miss Bartlett, tour Italy in the springtime. Lucy meets interesting characters who call into question her dull, repressed Edwardian life. Spring, Tuscany and enlightenment all in one luscious novel.

“How It All Began” by Penelope Lively

In this novel of new beginnings, one random event (the mugging of the very independent 77-year-old Charlotte) cascades into multiple outcomes: marriages disrupted, lovers united and lives changed. This is Penelope Lively at her best in an ingenious and absorbing story about human nature.

“Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella

Mysterious words inspire the construction of a cornfield baseball diamond. This classic novel, the basis for the film “Field of Dreams,” speaks a story about fathers and sons, family, and our cherished American pastime. Written in lovely prose, it evokes the nostalgia of family life and features a lovable hero.

“One Shot at Forever: A Small town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season” by Chris Ballard

Sportswriter Chris Ballard captures an Illinois high school baseball team’s improbable run at the state finals as poor farm boys from a small, rural town take on the privileged kids in this true-story account.

Wednesday, May 16 is the date. LaCentre in Westlake is the place. We’re calling it Boomer Bash West, an entertaining and educational event for 50+ adults, sponsored by Northeast Ohio Boomer and Beyond magazine.

Features include:

– Steve Jochum Guitarist and singer with 70’s classic music

– Live DJ with more of our generation’s favorites!

-“Baby Boomer” Trivia Contest with prizes

– Photo booth with props

– Quick-sketch caricatures by Wendy Fedan

– Raffle with prizes to benefit Greater Cleveland Fisher House

– Complimentary light appetizers

– Cash bar with Happy Hour drink specials

– Vendor tables and exhibits

– Brief sponsor presentations and Q&A sessions

Silver Sponsors include:

“It’s going to be an evening to remember with a lively mix of entertainment and education under one umbrella,” says Northeast Ohio Boomer and Beyond publisher Brad Mitchell.

Proceeds will benefit Greater Cleveland Fisher House. The organization, which is affiliated with the national Fisher House Foundation, is breaking ground in March for the first two Cleveland houses that will serve family members of veterans who are receiving treatment at the Louis Stokes VA Center. The houses will have a total of 16 suites that will accommodate 50 family members.

The collection will include Hepburn's stage costumes from The Lake, The Philadelphia Story and Without Love, as well as later appearances including Coco, The West Side Waltz and A Matter of Gravity. Films represented will include "The Little Minister," "Adam's Rib," "The Iron Petticoat," "Long Day's Journey Into Night," "A Delicate Balance," "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner" and "The Lion In Winter," as well as the television movies "Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry" and "Love Among the Ruins."
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William Morris devoted his life to creating beautiful and useful objects using the highest-quality materials under fair labor conditions. His richly varied patterns have been reproduced without interruption since his death in 1896, testifying to their timeless appeal. ...

Did you know?Lucas is Ohio’s second-ever poet laureate, succeeding Amit Majmudar, a diagnostic nuclear radiologist in the Columbus area (and Cleveland native). The position was created in 2014.
45 U.S. states, and Washington, D.C., have poets laureate, according to the Library of Congress.
While earning an MFA from the University of Virginia, Lucas studied under Akron native Rita Dove, a former U.S. Poet Laureate (1993-95).
Lucas won the Cleveland Art Prize and its Emerging Artist Award in 2016, and that same year, also served as the inaugural William N. Skirball Writers’ Center writer-in-residence at the Cuyahoga County Public Library.
Lucas has also taught at John Carroll Young Writer’s Workshop and Cleveland Clinic Program in Medical Humanities at the Lerner College of Medicine.
The Ohio Poet Laureate Selection Committee chose Lucas for the post, following a statewide nomination and review process. ...